


the higher I soar, the deeper I fall

by Atalto



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action, Don’t copy to another site, Dragon!Lance, Established Relationship, Fantasy AU, For Meeokie!!!! Happy v-Day!!, Galtea Valentine’s Exchange, High Fantasy, Knight!Shiro, Lance is a shapeshifter, M/M, Prince!Keith, Romance, Running Away, mention of offscreen death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 12:30:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17787446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalto/pseuds/Atalto
Summary: Today is the day. The day he'd been awaiting anxiously all week, counting down on a calendar towards; just thinking about it made his breath stutter and his heart to beat loudly in his ears.Today, they are running.~Keith and Shiro’s escape plan goes incredibly wrong, so it’s a good thing Lance is here to pick up the pieces.





	the higher I soar, the deeper I fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meeokie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meeokie/gifts).



> Hello all, and happy valentine’s day!
> 
> This is for Meeokie as part of the Galtea Valentines exchange - I hope this is okay for you! I will apologise, I saw ‘worldbuilding’, and got a little bit carried away :’D  
> Either way, enjoy, and thank you so much!!!!

"Do you have everything?"

Keith shrugs, scanning the room one final time as he throws his bag over one shoulder. "Think so," he grumbles, one hand tracing the dresser as he makes his way to where Shiro is standing in the entrance, "clothes, money, Mom's knife, rations - Lance said to travel light."

Today is the day. The day he'd been awaiting anxiously all week, counting down on a calendar towards; just thinking about it made his breath stutter and his heart to beat loudly in his ears.

Today, they are running.

"-Shiro what are you doing?"

Somehow whilst Keith was checking his bag, Shiro had meandered over to the cabinet on the other side of the room. "Do you need this?" He asks innocently, before Keith walks over to snatch a photo frame out of Shiro's hands.

It's his parents, go figure. Who went and disappeared off the face of the earth, who left him in this mess.

He hardly remembers the old Queen Krolia, but Papa? He definitely remembers him. He remembers him sitting Keith on his knee for royal occasions rather than his own seat, and would take him hunting practically every weekend.

Then he went and died, and eight years later, Queen Honvera still swears he's a spoilt child.

He then looks back up at Shiro, who's offering him one of the most supportive looks he's ever seen on the man, and he feels the anger ebb and flow away.  
"Fine, I'll take it," he sighs, opening his bag to gently lay the photo on top, "happy?"

He hears Shiro sigh, and he turns to move until he feels a familiar hand lace with his; it's hard to stop his racing thoughts, if just from the adrenaline that's coursing through his veins right now, but Shiro seems intent on grounding him.  
He's not sure if he's thankful.

"You're nervous," Shiro states calmly, and part of Keith wants to punch him for his unbelievable stillness, "talk to me, my prince."

It's then that his hand slides from Keith's own, moving up his arm until Keith is close enough for Shiro to wrap his arms around. The movement is almost electric to Keith's brain, but the moment he feels the familiar weight of two hands on the small of his back, he forces himself to take a deep, stuttering breath.

Okay, so maybe he is nervous, but who wouldn't be? They're attempting to escape the most heavily guarded castle in the Galra Empire, and Shiro's plan is to simply waltz out of the front door. Keith's twenty years of life experience is telling him it's a dumb plan and they're both going to die; he wants to escape via the forest, down the tree outside his window that he's clambered down so many times it's like clockwork now.

Then there's a gloved thumb on his cheek, and Keith snaps back to reality with a jump.

"Keith?"

"I'm nervous, okay?" He hisses defensively, averting his eyes from Shiro's as his hand slides down Keith's face to settle on his jaw, "this plan doesn't sound good, and I'm fairly sure we're going to die-"

"Trust me," Shiro says, for what feels like the millionth time that day, but his smooth voice and calm smile forces Keith to take a breath through a racing heartbeat, "I know what I'm doing."

Keith raises an eyebrow, tilting his hand into Shiro's palm with a grumble. "You always say that," he huffs as Shiro pulls away to poke his head around the door, and the sudden lack of touch sends shivers down his spine.

"Hopefully never again," Shiro mutters, before turning to Keith with a grin and pulling his hood over his head, "coast's clear, if you're ready."

He is ready. He knows he's ready, has checked his bag no less than three times, looked in every drawer and each blanket, and he knows there's nothing left for him here. Logical, Galra-raised brain tells him he should just leave whilst he can and never look back, but his Mother always said that he was emotional.

He was raised in this room. His father made up wild stories at that bedside, his mother taught him to fight with a dummy she set up in the corner until Honerva removed it. This is the one room that Zarkon never got his hands on, and he's protective, damn it. He doesn't want two people who never have a fuck about him fake-crying over his bedsheets when a maid reports him missing in the morning. They didn't care about him when he was twelve, and they don't care about him now that he's twenty.

"Keith?" He hears Shiro gently ask behind him, and he spins on the ball of his foot to see Shiro approaching slowly, "everything okay?"

He nods once, running a hand through his hair, before adjusting the bag strap and frowning. "Fine," he states, finally looking up into the beautiful quicksilver of Shiro's eyes, "let's go."

There's a hesitation in Shiro, but he smiles nonetheless, holding out his hand for Keith to take. "C'mon then," he urges, but there's a softness in his voice that Keith attaches to, "Lance won't wait all night."

There's a hand on his waist, before Keith squares up to the face before him, quickly pressing lips against Shiro's own.  
"For luck," he explains as he pulls away, etching Shiro's love-struck Face into his memory, "now let's go."

He wraps his hand around the metal one before him, and steps out into the hallway.

* * *

 

There's certainly one perk to dating the Captain of the Guard.

Namely, it's that Shiro has messed with the guard rotas. They don't see a single soldier between Keith's bedroom and the front gate, and although every corner sets Keith's blood on fire, it turns from fear to excitement as the truth of running slowly sinks in. It's terrifying, but he loves the feeling of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Particularly when Shiro's hand is looped around his and he's laughing like he's never laughed before.

"Told you we wouldn't get caught," Shiro says with a grin, turning to catch his breath as they stumble out the front gates of the castle, "but we do only have two minutes before Drov and Threx return, we need to go."

Keith turns, takes one last look at the castle, and runs.

"Where's Matt waiting?" He asks, shouting over the howling wind that's whipping at the trees, "you said he would be around somewhere!"

From here, the castle looked terrifying. They were just barely in the woods, lingering in the vain hopes Matt would arrive with the horse he had promised to lend them, and the imposing, flaming sight of the castle stood before them. It kind of took Keith's breath away, but the knife felt heavy, foreboding almost in his bag.

Why couldn't Matt arrive sooner?

He felt himself grumble, moving to kick the ground out of anxiety. Why the hell did they have to wait here? If the drawbridge guards returned like Shiro said they would, they're practically dead meat, but Shiro seems intent on staying rooted to the spot. He's aware he's jittery, and his breath catches weirdly in his throat, but he wants to go, wants to run to the frozen mountain and see Lance after months of brief encounters and secret escapes. He's fairly sure Shiro feels the same, particularly after hearing how smitten he is with Lance as well, and the preparation for this has been going on for so long it was nearly torture.

He wants to leave, and he wants to leave tonight.

There's a sharp sound of a twig snapping out in the woods, and Keith spins immediately. There's a pulse in his ears, and a knife in his hand, and Shiro's armoured hand thrown across his chest.

"Matt?" Shiro asks quietly, and Keith twists the handle of the knife in his hand, "you there?"

There's nothing in reply, just the continued whistling of the wind in the trees.

"Matt?"

There's a flash below them as knife transforms into sword, and Keith releases a breath that he didn't realise he was holding.

"Who's there-?"

"Show yourself!"

Ice shoots through Keith's veins as he spins, aware of the sudden glow from Shiro's arm as they face the bridge from which they came. There's two guards at the top, guns glowing purple in the dim light, and ice gets replaced by fire, twisting and turning. It sears through his blood, and a snarl rips from his lips as the whir of weaponry buzzes through the air.

"Stand down," Shiro murmurs, just loud enough for the guards to hear them, "we're just passing through, let us on our way."

Keith opens his mouth to shout, but the words fall away as Shiro hits a hand lightly against his chest.

Of course, he'd be recognised in a heartbeat.

There's muttering from the guards, and Shiro fidgets next to him.

"Reveal yourselves," the guard repeats, and the gun raises again, "under order of the Galran Empire, lower your hoods."

Shiro huffs, breath curling in the cold night air, and Keith feels himself tense at the notion. He's coiled like a spring, and he's aware his shoulders are practically up near the slight fuzz of his ears, but it does nothing except make the urge to run even stronger.

"You have to the count of three," the guard shouts, "one, two-"

That's when Keith grabs Shiro's hand, and runs into the woods as plasma slams into the trees where they were. It's all a bit of a blur, of black and green and the disorienting purple of the guards as they run down the bridge, but he just focuses on the placement of his feet and Shiro's hand in his trailing behind him.

"Keith," he barely hears, Shiro's voice nearly lost to the rush of wind and gunfire, "what's your plan?"

Keith shrugs, lowering his head into the wind as the hood threatens to fly off. "Run," he shouts back, "and don't look back."

They run until the trees thin away and the cliffs run parallel with them, and Keith can't help but feel the burning of oxygen debt searing from his lungs. He doesn't even know where they're going, just running and hoping that Shiro's following behind him.

Then there's a hand around his cloak, breath forced from his throat as the ground falls away in front of him.

"Fuck."

There's a cliff in front, and guards behind, and it's then that Keith realises he's run them into one hell of a corner.

"Sweetheart," He hears Shiro hiss behind him, "what now?"

  
Then he realises that his hood's down, and both guards have a wonderful view of who they now know is their honoured Prince running away with one of the highest ranked knights in the land.

"Jump?" He suggests wildly, drawing his knife once again. It's a mad idea, but he knows Shiro's thinking the same by how his heel is skirting the cliff edge and the determined grimace on his face.

There's another whir of weaponry in front of them, but Keith barely has time to take it in before his feet aren't on the ground anymore.

Instead, he's in the air, and there's claws around his shoulders, and there's hardly any air left in his lungs. He'll never get used to the feeling of flying, of having nothing solid under his feet but not ever falling, and it's all thanks to the huge, midnight blue dragon thats currently slicing through the air with them.

Next to him, he hears Shiro laugh breathlessly, hands up around thick claws in a grateful hug. He's never been more beautiful, with his hair fluttering in the wind and wondrous, wondrous relief spread across his face.

 _Looks like you guys were stuck in a rut there,_ the familiar voice suggests, like a loving, warm whisper in his skull, _thank the gods that I was here to rescue you boys, eh?_

"Shut up, Lance," Keith calls back, but there's a grin on his face and love in his voice, "why are you here at all?"

There's a rumble from the dragon, and Keith looks up to see scales glinting in the moonlight.  
_You were taking too long,_ Lance replies, and the hint of worry in his voice sparks a heat in Keith's veins, _I just thought I would see what the hold up was, and then I see you two having a showdown on a cliff edge with two imperial guards - what was I supposed to do?_

"But you know how dangerous it is for you to come this close to the empire," Shiro shouts as Lance begins descending to the mountain plateau that they'd frequented many times, "why risk it?"

 _Because you're worth it_ , Lance states simply, _now can y'all be quiet? I need to focus on landing this since I don't have feet._

Its a heavy landing, but true to his word, Lance nails it, dropping Keith and Shiro to the rocky ground before gliding to a halt. It's graceful, even for a dragon the size of a turret, and he celebrates his landing with a blast of icy cold energy and a roar that echoes around the mountains.

"Are you okay?" Shiro asks, suddenly at his side as Keith lays on the floor, chest heaving as he tries to get his breath back, "Keith-?"

"I'm fine," he answers quickly, tilting his head to flash Shiro a grin, "and now we're away, I'm positively brilliant."

Shiro's concerned frown melts away into happiness, and the exhilaration of flight ebbs and flows out of his blood as the realisation that they had gotten out settles in.

"We made it," Shiro breathes, flopping down next to him on the hard ground, "we're out."

"No more godamn royal duties," Keith muses, earning a laugh from Shiro.

"No more hiding," Shiro says quietly, and Keith rolls to take a look at the man next to him.  
He's tired, face shadowed from the light of the campfire in the centre of the plateau, but there's hope in his smile and excitement in his eyes.

"Hiding who?" Keith jokes, letting Shiro pull him into his arms and settle against his chest, "me or the dragon?"

Shiro frowned. "Stop making me choose-"

"I can't believe you guys are getting comfy without me!"

Almost immediately a third body snuggles up behind Keith, cold where Lance is nuzzling his forehead against the back of Keith's neck. One huge leathery wing blankets them, and Keith looks to see Shiro lacing his hand with Lance's, rich skin decorated with the occasional glittering scale.

"I'm so glad you guys got out," he murmurs, before Keith feels lips press against the back of his head; they've been teaching Lance about human displays of affection, and he's definitely getting the hang of it.

It's a little while later when Keith cannot escape the need to sit up; his back is hurting from lying on the flat rocks, and exhaustion is settling in but he knows he can't sleep where he is right now. Slowly, he pushes himself up, fighting the two arms around him to sit up.

"Oh, I have food," Lance mentions as he stretches, human form lithe and lean before them, "I caught some livestock and it's cooking over the fire right now - are you guys ready?"

"Yeah," Shiro replies lazily, following Keith to his feet and nearly tripping over Lance's wing as it shifts with him, "yeah, food sounds great."

There's a hum from Lance as he scrambles to his feet, meandering over to the campfire that's roaring away in the cave.  
"It's just a pig I caught in the fields last night," he calls over his shoulder as Keith takes Shiro's hand to lead him into the cave, "and I skinned it, and butchered it, just the way you humans like it."

Keith laughs at that, laughter bubbling up from his gut as he props his chin on Lance's shoulder from behind. True to his word, there's a huge pork carcass turning on a makeshift spit over the fire, already browned and stripped of fat; if he's being honest, it looks kind of charred - Lance obviously isn't too aware of cooking times - but it's really the effort that warms his chest.

"A Valentine's day meal," he hears Shiro muse behind them, joining the two to wrap arms around both Keith and Lance's waists, "how fitting."

"You weird humans and your traditions," Lance says with a chuckle, breaking the embrace to heft the spit away from the fire, "hopefully this is done?"

He dumps it on the material in the centre of the cave, yanking the spit out the middle and starts on shredding the meat with nimble claws.

Keith just calls it pulled pork and tries not to think about it.

"This is our third Valentine's, Lance," he says with a smirk, earning a snort from Shiro and a pout from Lance, "thought you should be used to it by now."

"It's still weird." Lance snorts, and there's a flash of energy from his nostrils that forms ice crystals on the floor below as he blushes from embarrassment. "Sorry, this form isn't exactly-"

"It's fine," Shiro interrupts with a grin, and Keith can't help but agree as Shiro's prosthetic moves over where skin blends with scales, "I'd even say it's handsome."

Lance's blush positivity explodes after that, and it's easily one of the greatest sights Keith has ever seen.

"So," Lance continues, very hastily changing the subject, "where do you guys wanna' go? I mean, world's your oval, we could see seas, or Hunk's territory over in the Arashna plain, or, I dunno', anywhere I guess."

Keith snorts a laugh, letting Lance fall against his chest with a huff. "World's your oyster, and honestly?" He stops, letting Lance turn his head with a hum of interest. "Anywhere sounds good right now - anywhere but here."

"The sea sounds wonderful," he hears Shiro muse, and it's then that Keith is forced to remember that the only reason he's seen so much is his royal position - Shiro always wanted to see the sea, used to pester Keith for detail and descriptions to form daydreams out of as children.

"Then we'll go there first," Keith states, and the unadulterated joy on Shiro's face is both immediate and beautiful, "happy Valentine's Day."

He reaches one hand out, inviting Shiro into the already cramped embrace as Lance twists and opens his arms for Shiro to fall into. Shiro accepts it happily, and there's a happiness that Keith feels rushing through him at the idea of holding his loves in his arms.

"Tomorrow," he confirms, feeling Lance nod under his chin, "we'll set out tomorrow, get supplies on the way."

"There's an guard fort on the other side of Daibaazal," Shiro adds, "it's not manned except in a state of war, we could raid it as we pass."

Keith doesn't have to look to see Lance's massive grin. "Tomorrow it is, but I'm also knackered," he says with a yawn, "can I like, stay here?"

It's warm, and the fatigue hits him like a battering ram at the mere mention of sleeping.

"Sure," Keith says, pressing a kiss to both their heads in articulation, "and tomorrow, we leave."

They slept better than any of them had done for weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was okay for you!!!!
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


End file.
